Return
by ZakuReno
Summary: Let the inevitable come the sooner the better. End my pitiful existence. Will we meet again, sis? Oneshot about a sad epilogue of DOC. No actual parings, a bit of VincentxShelke and Yuffie but more of the family type. Read and review please. And no FLAME


A/N: Here is a oneshot about what happened after the ending of DOC which suddenly popped out of nowhere in my head. Please review kindly or critic which would greatly help, but please don't FLAME if you don't like the story.

* * *

He was a member of the Department of Administrative Research or more famously known as The Turks, 33 years ago.

He was killed and experimented by his love and her husband, the latter trying to turn him into a monster while the other tried to save him albeit turning him into one in the process.

He was turned into an immortal creature, stuck in his 27 year old appearance and much to his despise, a dangerous creature named Chaos in his already messed up body.

He would most probably still be sleeping in his damned redemption coffin or "be a rock in the river of time" as he called it, if his so called _friends_ hadn't had the nerves to disturb the infamous Shinra Mansion, found the secret passage leading to its basement, pick on the safe which held the keys to the secret room where he had slept for almost 30 years and thought him how to move on.

Life was relatively normal now, WRO were running the job smoothly and everyone was moving on with life after the Deepground incident. And with the return of Chaos to the planet, even he, Vincent Valentine, was moving on.

The six foot tall man visited Seventh Heaven, their meeting point more often and if he had to go for a long time for a moment of peace, he would at least gave news to Nanaki or better known as RedXIII, and Yuffie who would quickly spread the news to the other AVALANCHE members and Shelke, the newest addition of the ex-terrorist group.

Shelke Rui, or also known as the infamous Shelke the transparent of the Tsviets, formerly an enemy, now an ally, friend and sister to Vincent and the other AVALANCHE members. Her actual age was 19 years old but due to the numerous experiments that she had gone through, she was stuck in her weak, delicate, mako dependant 10 year old body, but that fact had never succeeded to stop her stubborn and arrogant persona.

She was the long lost sister of Shalua Rui, who was kidnapped by Shinra at the early age of 9 because she was said to have _potentials_. With her 'Synaptic Net Dive' skills, she had uploaded Dr. Lucrecia Crescent's research work which defragmented in her mind and allowed her to see and feel the memories of the scientist with Vincent and most of her emotions.

* * *

"Please, pretty, pretty please." A young girl with shoulder length raven hair dropped down to her knees in front of the man who wore a red tattered cape and pleaded with all her might (With her ear piercing voice).

"I said, no." Vincent immediately countered without even opening his eyes to take a glance at the pleading kid who was currently clinging on to his leg.

"Vincent." She whined and continued her pleading which had gone through a good 45 minutes. "Please" She drawled. "I got an _important_ duel with Godo tomorrow and I need that _super mighty strong_ materia. You got to help me find it! Please!"

"No, Yuffie. Ask the others and stop calling my phone if you don't have any important business to talk to." Vincent said nonchalantly.

"C'mon, Vince. The others are busy!" The petite ninja whined again. "And of course this is important, it's about my reputation." Yuffie abruptly stood up and said boastfully. "If me, the _great ninja Yuffie_ used the same materia like last year…where would I put my face?" She hugged his leg again after releasing it to pose for her great ninja stance and begged and whined until the front door of the bar opened with a loud creak.

"Yuffie! You are disturbing the neighbors; your voice can be heard from the roads." A brunette pushed the door open with her back while her hands were occupied with two big shopping bags towering over her.

"But Tifa, you have to help me persuade Vince help me find that materia."

"You've beaten your father more than once, you don't have to worry that much." Tifa walked in clumsily and said a short thank you to Vincent who stood up from his comfortable stool and took one of the grocery bags from her, Yuffie still clinging on to his leg.

"I'm not afraid of losing to that old man! But I need a new materia to show off at the duel tomorrow-"

"Why can't peace stay in this house whenever Yuffie shows up?" A gentle but accusing voice came in from the stairs followed by a yawning young brunette descending from it.

But instead of fuming with anger like what the ninja would do if it was a few weeks ago when they had just met, the hyper ninja just shrugged off her newest _friend's_ previous remarks and dragged her to one of the stools beside Vincent. "I know that you missed me Shelke, but now I need a little help from you. I'm counting on you to tell Vincent that he should help me go materia hunting!" The hyper girl asked with demand.

"Why don't you tell him by yourself?" Shelke pried the nagging girl's hands off and sat on the stool right beside her, one stool apart from the silent worshiper man.

"I did! But he-"

"Don't force him." Shelke interfered the ear splitting voice before it would do anymore damages to her ears and everyone else's around them. "If he doesn't want to-" The brunette started again but before she could finish her sentence, her head wobbled and everything went dark as she lost her balance and a pair of arms secured her shoulders before she fell to the ground.

"Shelke!" A pair of high pitched voice rang on her ears, if only she could wince, their voice wouldn't be ringing on her head this badly, she thought to herself.

"Shelke, what's wrong?" The sonorous but soft voice of Vincent Valentine surfaced near her ears and she could immediately guess that it was the ex-Turk who was holding her right now.

Her mind was fully awake, she could hear the trio's worried voices and the vehicles passing outside the bar, she could smell the stale scent of the man who was holding her limp shoulders, but her whole body refused to follow her orders and move.

"Sorry…forgot…Mako…" The sentence which took double the usual effort to verbalize just came out as a soft murmur.

"You…forgot to take your Mako?" Tifa completed the words for the younger brunette and mused out aloud, receiving a silent nod which bounced the young girl's rufous shoulder length hair.

"You forgot?" The brunette heard his sonorous voice, low, demanding, with a tinge of anger which was always there and she could already imagine his deeply furrowed eyebrows.

* * *

He had already had a bad feeling about this since he first heard that she had forgotten.

Shelke Rui wasn't the type of person to forget, she was a person full of accuracy and manipulation. Her previous title in the Tsviets could also be meant as Shelke the emotionless, previously being a person who looked up at everything rationally. She wasn't like the usual girl of her age like Yuffie, even though you couldn't call the Materia fanatic girl as normal…but still.

Maybe it was okay if she had forgotten about some trivial things but this was about Mako, the only remedy which had kept her alive till now.

And all of his fears were proved when the same incident happened a month later.

"What did you just say? You ran out of Mako?" Vincent scolded as best as his stiff face and voice could allow to the young looking girl who was lying on the bed, silence was her reply. "I'll ask Reeves for it, he must have some reserves-"

"No!" The brunette countered as loud as her unresponsive body could allow. "Mako are banned now…it'll eventually run out someday…let it stay like this."

Vincent was dumbstruck at what he had just heard from the mouth of the girl who he had started caring like his own sister. And all the words of persuasion that he could think of saying were. "What…? What about the missing ten years which you want to fill in? You're giving up hope? You…you don't want to continue the life Shalua had given you?" As much as out of character he was feeling at the moment.

And once again silence was the answer that she gave.

Shelke could feel his piercing gaze on her, and immediately sighed in relief after she heard the clacking of his metal boots and the poor door slammed to its frame.

"I don't want to live in pity." She breathed out. "Are you waiting for me there, Shalua?"

Shelke breathed in and out, enjoying the peace in her room which was soon disturbed by frantic footsteps which she could pretty guess who its owner was, and soon someone busted in through the door.

"Shelke!" An ear splitting voice came from the direction of her door. "Are you really going to do this!" The materia loving princess asked in a screaming tone.

The brunette didn't approve nor deny, or utter a single syllable until she heard something which she had never expected to come from the young ninja.

A soft sob which was almost not noticeable by her failing ears escaped from the energetic girl.

The lifeless girl was sure that her ears had started to defunction like the rest of her body but another sob was caught by it and this time she was sure that the person beside her was crying.

"Y-Yuffie Kisaragi...stop crying, I am just returning to the planet…we'll meet again." She fumbled with her words, her mechanical voice sounded like a broken machine which was ready to stop its exhausted engine.

The reasons why human cried was when they were overwhelmed by any emotions, may it be happiness, fear or despair. And it didn't seem like Yuffie was feeling anything near to happiness, which only meant that she was crying because of sadness upon losing the dying brunette.

"B-but, I'm not dying anytime soon." Yuffie sobbed and blew her nose to a tissue which was handed by Red XII who had suddenly showed up.

"You really want to go?" The red feline suddenly spoke up, surprising the brunette who hadn't noticed his arrival.

"You're just going to wait here until it ends?" Vincent Valentine suddenly showed up from the door, breaking the tensed silence.

Silence and then the brunette blurted out sheepishly. "I-I want to meet her."

* * *

I'll prove it to them! Nobody is going to laugh at my thesis again!

Why should this happen…

Why would they send his son…

Vincent…

I love…

This is my choice…I'm happy with this…

What have you done…

Let me see him…just once…

This is too much…

I can't take it anymore…

I'm so sorry…

Dr. Lucrecia Crescent, the owner of all these memories and feelings which had surfaced in her mind, allowing her to regain her own emotions, little by little.

Her eye lids were heavy, as if she had just woken up from a long, deep slumber. It took a lot of effort to just crack an eye open. She saw the familiar ceiling of The Shera through half lidded eyes and groaned.

"We're almost there." Shelke heard the all too familiar voice of Vincent Valentine and tried to turn her head to him, which failed miserable. She closed her eyes again and sighed, already feeling fatigue on the so little movement that she was able to make.

"How long has it been?" The brunette surprised herself with the hoarse voice which came from her own throat.

"6 hours, we'll reach there in about another half hour." The long raven haired man informed her and continued after an awkward silent. "Just hang on."

* * *

The large airship came to a halt in front of a large waterfall which muffled the humming of her engine.

"We're here."

Shelke felt a pair of arm crept behind her back and knees and the next thing she knew, she was lifted up easily.

"We can still turn around and meet Reeves if you want." Cid Highwind's rough and loud voice reached her ears.

"No." Was her only reply.

The blonde pilot cursed and snorted. "Fine, it's your choice."

Vincent stayed silent along the way, too silent, even for a Vincent Valentine. And she was trying to ignore the fact that maybe his silence was because of anger or annoyance of the choice that she had made.

Enjoy life to the fullest, especially when your life could end anytime like now. She breathed in the cold fresh air and felt the cold breeze which was surprisingly refreshing, rather than freezing her paralyzed body.

She couldn't hear anything else except the sound of the waterfall until it was suddenly dead silent.

Was she dead?

Definitely not, she could still feel the damp air, the stench of mold filling her nostrils and her body swaying up and down as Vincent carried her. They had most probably arrived inside the cave.

Vincent walked straight into the cave, eyes fixed on the big, glowing crystal in the middle of the dimly lit space, or to be precise the woman encased inside it.

"We're here." He stopped in front of the glowing mass of transparent natural stones and said. "Shelke?" The ex-Turk called out and felt relieved when he saw a twitch of the brunette's lips.

"I'm still alive…Vincent Valentine." Shelke said with her mechanical-like voice and continued when the awkward silent surrounded them again, too discomforting to bear this time. "We'll meet again, when it's time for you to return to the planet."

The owner of The Cerberus just stared at the encased sleeping woman in front of him and snapped from his trance when he heard a voice below him.

"Anything that has a definite shape will one day cease to exist." She quoted.

Vincent immediately whipped his head down; raven locks followed the little movement above him. He gazed at the brunette's half lidded eyes and moved to her body which was starting to emanate a soft green light.

Shelke slowly brought up her glowing hand which grazed the cool surface of the crystal in front of his face.

"So…all of these feelings are yours?" The brunette whispered to the peaceful looking woman beside her and finally closed her eyes as her glowing body dispersed into green tendons of The Lifestream which disappeared before it reached the damp cave's ceiling. "We'll meet again." Her last words rang in Vincent's ears.

Silence

Vincent stared at his now hollow hands, where the brunette's light weight previously pressurized on and dropped it back to his sides. He turned around, his crimson tattered cape and raven mane following gracefully behind him.

And silently nodded in agreement to the deceased souls.


End file.
